Litha; Midsummer; the Longest Day of the Year. Today’s celebration of the Wheel of the Year.

I am traveling today and so decided to make my observance early. This is sunrise in Bangor from our balcony. A beautiful start to the solstice. I think of the summer solstice as Summer at its most powerful and robust. A point from which to extol the solar energy being stored in our gardens. Energy to take us through the entire year. A time to take that energy and model my own life on the order the Wheel imposes on the natural world.

Perhaps coincidentally, I am brushing up for a Fall semester course by reading an introductory Geology textbook. Just as the Wheel is a symbol of our cyclical and dependable world, so too is geology. For 4.5 billion years our Earth has supported the development of life. It has been our rock. A place to plant our feet and our lives. The Wheel and the Earth symbolize the continuity I seek.

In pursuit of order, and normalcy, I have traveled to Anniston, Alabama for onboarding with FEMA. As many of you know, an NPR broadcast on the intersection of wealth inequality and climate change led me to FEMA. I have been hired as an on-call Reservist to assist with response and recovery at declared disasters. FEMA helps me bring some order to my new life, and hopefully I can help bring some assistance to those to whom Nature, and society, have apportioned some disorder.

But. But is our world really so nurturing and dependable? It certainly is.

But still. The magnetic poles move, the continents move, mountains rise and erode. Very slowly, but over time we find that what was, is no more. The Wheel of the Year is comfortably cyclical, but we now find the seasonal variations are wider and more erratic. Seasons are starting and ending earlier or later than our traditions, or the biosphere, plan upon.

I find the Wheel of the Year quite comforting. The repetition and the anticipation of a reflection point every six weeks or so is valuable. And while I am able to use this mechanism to build a new stability in my life, it is important to realize that my struggle does not proceed in a vacuum. My quest and grasping does not make the world predictable, fair, or dependable.

There are four generations of moving parts in my extended family. Some of those parts are doing well. Some of those parts are wearing out. Some of those parts have gone off script. And some of those parts are truly suffering. My hope for this Litha is that the energy present on this longest day makes its way into the lives of all and gives them what they need to follow the path they have set for themselves, with the minimum of obstacles.